


Into The West

by lilolilyrae



Category: The Hobbit (Jackson Movies)
Genre: M/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-11-11
Updated: 2018-11-11
Packaged: 2019-08-09 12:46:00
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,575
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/16450220
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/lilolilyrae/pseuds/lilolilyrae
Summary: The last ship into the undying lands sets sail.





	Into The West

**Author's Note:**

> 2018-11-01  
> ~  
> I have no idea how canon or crack this entire thing is, I did read the Simarilion once but my brain was unable to comprehend the thing and thus also unable to remember it at all.  
> Enjoy!  
> ~

It happened just as the story would later be told.

Bilbo stole the Arkenstone. 

Thorin, caught by the dragobsickness, despised him for it and let him know.

The battle happened- and Thorin died.

 

It had all happened just as it was later told- with one difference. 

Before the battle, before the sickness, Thorin Oakenshield and Bilbo Baggins had been lovers.

But for history, this detail didn't matter in the end.

 

Bilbo returned to the shire, living his the rest of his life as hobbit-like as could be- well, for him at least. To the rest of the hobbits, he would always stay an outcast.

He didn't mind. He had not much interest in them. 

He's restless- His thoughts would always stray back to the one he had lost. 

 

 

Then Frodo comes into his life.

An adopted son- a responsibility.

A reason for Bilbo to actually live, not just continue staying alive.

Especially given that he doesn't seem to age.

Sometimes he thinks he is cursed- forced to forever stay away from the man he loved.

He considered ending his life by himself, many times.

For Frodo, he stays alive.

But his mind is as bright as ever, memories always coming back.

If he can't join Thorin yet, at least he wants to see his home again.

 

So he leaves the shire.

Leaves the ring behind.

And, while he never quite makes that connection himself, he leaves his immortality with it.

 

He does, however, start to notice the change in himself, and fast.

The lines in his face get stronger. Bones in his body weaker, more brittle. 

And, worst of all, his memory is starting to fade.

 

At first he tries to ignore it- tells himself it's just because of the change, the exhaustion of travelling, no longer staying at home all day long.

Then when he notices that there truly is something wrong, he tries to cling to his memories through the fog, remember the images, the faces- Thorin's face.

Then he truly starts to forget.

 

Bilbo Baggins never makes it back to the lonely mountain. 

Safely in rivendell, his body is starting to give in to the damage of time.

And soon, he forgets why he wanted to keep going in the first place.

 

 

 

* * *

* * *

 

 

While Bilbo is listening to elvish music in rivendell, his nephew Frodo is making his way to Mordor- and, against all odds, back home.

 

They meet again when the elves offer Bilbo a place on the last ship west. 

Bilbo has aged to be almost unrecognisable, but Frodo still sees his uncle in the withered old man.

He worries for him. 

Had Bilbo still had enough force in his mind left, he would have worried for Frodo, too.

 

Frodo's own story has gone quite different to the one of Bilbo.

He turned a spy, not a thief or a soldier.

He fought in no big battles. 

And there was no lost love.

But Frodo has his own losses to grieve.

And his own mind has trouble comprehending it all.

Where Bilbo, perhaps especially through Thorin's death, had been reminded of his own mortality and wanted to go back to live his life as he used to, Frodo is left to wonder:

How can he pick up where he left of?

What is there to do?

Nothing seems important, significant enough for him to spare a second thought. 

The beautiful green shire seems trust and ordinary. 

He can't find a purpose for his life left to live- not here.

 

Gandalf, ever the watchful, sees this.

Takes it upon himself to worry about the little hobbit, as Frodo's uncle can not.

And as he has the elves offer Frodo a place on the same ship into the west- Frodo gladly accepts.

 

 

* * *

* * *

 

 

  
The only hard thing when leaving a place behind is saying goodbye.  
Once you have left, new adventures lay ahead.

  
Smiling back at his friends of middle-earth, Frodo turns his eyes, and his energy, into the west.

  
Over the course of the journey, he notices a curious thing: Bilbo is getting younger again!

At first, it seems to be his state of mind that's changed, perhaps the newfound freedom of the ocean making him younger at heart and more open to think.  
But then the wrinkles in his face start to diminish. His posture, once bent, brittle and frail, starts to improve.

Full of concern, Frodo turns to Gandalf- has some effect of the one ring come back? Should they have stayed in middle earth to defeat some new evil?

Gandalf just smiles.

"We are on our way to the undying lands, my boy" he explains. expla"Have you jot noticed it within yourself?"

And of course, now that he thinks about it, Frodo does notice, and his hand flies up to press against his breastbone in phantom-pain:

The scar.  
Where the ring-ghost's blade stabbed him.

It had always hurt, no matter what he did about it- sometimes, he had thought he would hold a fiest of joy should it ever stop paining him.

But now that it happened... Of course, the absence of pain, no matter how sudden, tends to be less notable than the existence of it.

So this was his gift from the undying lands... He didn't need to be younger, the way bilbo did, as he was already in the prime of his life...

"What about the others, then? What about _you_ , Gandalf?" after all, the old wizard should have been one of the first to show signs of de-aging, shouldn't he? 

"Oh, the elves don't look much different whether they're a hundred or a thousand years old- and a hundred is often not yet the prime of their lifespan. As for me- you might have noticed, I'm not a regular mortal-"  
There's a twinkle in his eyes as he says it, and Frodo grins back at him-

"But I suppose you wouldn't know who, or what exactly I am. All the beings you know as wizards are, in fact, Manor...."

Gandalf tells him all about the immortal being only second to gods, and once again Frodo is stunned by the wonders of this world.

 

* * *

* * *

 

 

A few weeks into the journey, maybe several months even- time passes strangely out there- the effects on Bilbo start to be obvious to himself as well.

He can think clearly again!

It's a shock at first, realising how far gone he had already been- but a relief, then, knowing that the last shadows still clouding his mind will disappear as well.

  
He starts noticing things, then.

Things he hadn't truly seen before, things that, for some reason, he didn't remember clearly.

Like Frodo's journey- and the ring.

"Can you tell me what happened, again?" he asks him, trying to ignore the embarrassment in his stomach for having been so senile.

Frodo tells a story of adventure and chaos and war, but also of bravery, friendship and a growth in character.

At the end of it, Bilbo has to force himself to breathe- so much danger, even more so, maybe, than during his own travelling.

Then he notices: what Frodo hasn't talked about at all is love. Or loosing anyone close to him.

It shakes Bilbo, perhaps more than it should've- after all, the usual hobbit doesn't marry quite so early, either.

Still, Frodo is there on this journey of no return with him, and subconsciously Bilbo expected him to have the same reason.

"So... You never met anyone, on your journey?"

"Met anyone? What, you mean- no, I mean, I couldn't have left them behind, then, right?" Frodo looks confused.

"A lot of people must've died in that war, I just thought-"

"Oh- Oh! No, I haven't lost anyone like this. Why did you think...?"

"Then why are you here?!" Bilbo blurts out, and Frodo looks taken aback- whether because of the unusual question, or of how unabashedly he asked it- something his older self, as he has taken upon calling that time, would never have done- he doesn't know.

"I- I- it just hurt too much, staying." Frodo mumbles and retreats onto deck.

Bilbo is only glad that his nephew hasn't figured out to ask what has made himself take on the journey.

 

* * *

 

A while later, they arrive.

It's weird to say a while, really, but it's either days or years after they started, so no-one really knows what else to call it (except for Gandalf, perhaps).

  
The haven of the undying lands is made of white marble and wood, and the beach surrounding it is a so gleaming shiny white- had Frodo been there when Gandalf had talked to Merry about life after death, he had now come to understand.

As it is, the hobbit is more focused on the people waiting for them by the port.

There are elves there, mostly, in elegant rows of women and men waiting for their kind to make it home.

There are men there, too- and dwarves, of all beings? Quite a lot of them actually... And is that a hobbit or two looking out from behind the crowd?

  
Frodo turns to ask Bilbo who those people might be, but his uncle isn't standing behind him anymore.

Looking around, he finds him on the landing stage, having made his in front of all the elves, and running off the boat as soon as possible- to fall into the arms of a dwarf.

Now, that is certainly something Frodo would have never expected.

 

**Author's Note:**

> Still a WIP so do click bookmark if you want to see this find an eventual happy ending :)
> 
> 2018-11-01 Bilbo's POV  
> 2018-11-02 Frodo's POV  
> Again Frodo's POV  
> 2018-11-07 Bilbo's POV  
> 2018-11-11 Frodo's POV


End file.
